


can we always be this close?

by sophh



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: M/M, Wizard's Chess (Harry Potter)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-19
Updated: 2021-02-19
Packaged: 2021-03-15 19:47:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,030
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29564211
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sophh/pseuds/sophh
Summary: When Ernie allows Justin to pick another activity besides wizard's chess, Justin picks something his boyfriend isn't so good at.
Relationships: Justin Finch-Fletchley/Ernie Macmillan
Comments: 1
Kudos: 4





	can we always be this close?

Justin smiled at the look of intense concentration on Ernie's face. His boyfriend was hunched over a chess board, muttering under his breath so quickly that Justin couldn't make out any of the words. Ernie's opponent, Hannah, was anxiously twisting a blonde pigtail around her finger as her gaze darted around the board. After a moment, she shakily directed her white rook to move forward three spaces.

"Ah, bad luck, Hannah," Ernie said sympathetically, directing his black knight to the very same space. Justin watched, as amazed as he had been the first time he had watched a game of wizard's cheese, as Ernie's knight smashed Hannah's rook into tiny slivers of marble. Hannah winced. 

"So violent," she said, shaking her head. Justin privately agreed. 

"That's wizard's chess for you," Ernie replied, unperturbed. 

"Yeah, but some of us didn't grow up playing this particular version of chess," Justin pointed out gently. 

Ernie sniffed. "I still can't believe you have to move the pieces  _ yourself _ on a Muggle chessboard." 

Justin caught Hannah's eye and stifled a laugh. She knew as well as he did how pompous Ernie could be sometimes. 

A few minutes later, Ernie crowed, "Checkmate!" 

Hannah groaned goodnaturedly. "Good game, Ernie." She patted his shoulder, then stood and nodded at the two boys. "I'm off to bed. Goodnight, Justin, Ernie."

"'Night, Hannah," they responded in unison. 

When she had left, Ernie turned to Justin and raised a blond eyebrow. "So, how about it, Justin? You up for a game?"

"Oh, no," Justin protested, holding up his hands. Ernie was the undisputed wizard's chess champion among their circle of friends, and indeed, probably all of Hufflepuff house. Justin was definitely not stupid enough to willingly play him. He could barely even play  _ Muggle _ chess properly. His dad had taught him over the Christmas holidays his first year — after he had come home exclaiming about the magical game — but he lacked the ability to strategize, something that his boyfriend had spent hours refining and perfecting. 

Ernie pouted. "Come on, just one game?" 

Justin sighed. It was never "just one game" with Ernie. The other boy always insisted on a post-game recap, where he would point out every mistake his opponent had made and how they could have avoided it. Then, he would demand that they play him  _ again _ , to see if they had learned from their blunders. Often, he would repeat this cycle several times, and his opponent would find themselves wondering why they had even agreed to play him in the first place. Ernie's behavior would have been almost endearing to Justin had he not been that opponent many, many times before. 

His boyfriend poked his lip out even further. Justin couldn't help but laugh at the exaggerated expression. "Fine," he said, dragging the word out longer than was strictly necessary. "But you owe me." 

Ernie's eyes lit up. "Yes! I promise, after this, we'll do whatever you want."

Justin was already cooking up ways to make Ernie regret saying that. "I'll be black, if you want," he offered. 

Ernie waved a hand. "Nah, I'll take black. Give you that first-turn advantage."

Justin snorted. Supposedly there was an advantage to having the first move, but against a chess master like Ernie, that handicap was useless. "You know that isn't going to help me, Ern." 

Ernie grinned. "Yeah, I do." 

***

Half an hour later, Justin unsurprisingly found himself conceding defeat. By now, the common room was deserted — it was past midnight so everyone else had gone to bed. He rubbed his eyes. "Good game, Ern."

Ernie puffed out his chest and beamed, as proud as Justin imagined he must have been after winning his very first chess game. "You played well, Justin, but—"

"Uh-uh." Justin shook his head. "We're not doing this. You said we would play  _ one _ game, Ern.  _ One _ ."

"I know what I said, but—"

"Ernie, look at me." Ernie did, his hazel eyes glinting by the light of the common room fire. "We played one game, and now we're done, okay? So there's no need for you to break down everything I did wrong." 

"Fine," his boyfriend grumbled. 

Justin moved onto the couch next to him and took his hand. "You're not mad, are you?" 

"Of course not!" he sputtered.

With a grin, Justin said, "Good, because you said we could do whatever  _ I  _ wanted to now."

Ernie ran a hand through his hair, looking apprehensive. "What'd you have in mind?"

"Oh, just a few rounds of Exploding Snap," Justin said casually. He had to resist the urge to chuckle at the horrified look on his boyfriend's face. Ernie was not a fan of Exploding Snap because he couldn't plan ahead — he never knew when the cards might spontaneously combust. "You promised," he reminded him cheekily. 

"You're lucky I like you," Ernie said with a roll of his eyes. 

"You're lucky I like you too," Justin countered, leaning over to peck his cheek. Ernie turned his head at the last second and Justin caught his lips instead. "Even when you do sneaky things like that," he said as he pulled away. 

"Who are you calling sneaky?" Ernie responded. "You're the one who tricked me into playing Exploding Snap with you!"

Justin laughed. Sure, Ernie could be pompous and bossy, and maybe he didn't  _ entirely _ understand Muggle chess, but Justin couldn't imagine life at Hogwarts without him. 

***

The two soon settled into a round of the unpredictable card game, and after a while, the sounds of Ernie cursing and Justin snickering filled the empty room. 

"Alright, you win," Ernie finally said, throwing down his cards with a yawn. 

Justin yawned too. "Ah, sweet victory!"

"Don't be so dramatic," Ernie huffed. 

"Dramatic?  _ Me _ ?" Justin asked innocently. 

"Touché." Ernie got to his feet and held out his hand. "Come on, let's go to bed. I'm knackered."

Justin let the other boy pull him off the couch and into his arms. He stood there for a moment, savoring the sensation of Ernie's arms around him. It brought him a kind of comfort that nothing else could. "Love you, Ern," he murmured. 

Ernie dropped a kiss onto his forehead. "Love you too, Justin."


End file.
